Kristine Yeckley-Torres

FRIT 7136
Information Literacy Plan
Fall 2010

Pathfinder URL:
http://yeckleytorreseducationcorrelation.pbworks.com/w/page/33247267/FrontPage
 Title of UnitChristmas Around the World and our CommunityGrade Level
KindergartenStandards for the 21st Century Learner Goals-

2.1.4-Use technology and other information

tools to analyze and organize information.

2.1.5-Collaborate with others to exchange

ideas, develop new understandings, make
decisions, and solve problems.

2.1.6-Use the writing process, media and

visual literacy, and technology skills to
create products that express new
understandings.

2.2.4-Demonstrate personal productivity by

completing products to express learning.

2.3.1-Connect understanding to the real

world.

2.3.2-Consider diverse and global

perspectives in drawing conclusions.

2.4.3 Recognize new knowledge and

understanding.

State Standards:
SSKG1-The students will describe
American culture by explaining diverse
community and family celebrations and
customs.
ELAKR4-The student demonstrates the
ability to read orally with speed, accuracy,
and expression.
ELAKR5-The student acquires and uses
grade --level words to communicate
effectively.
ELAKR6-The student uses a variety of
strategies to understand and gain meaning
from grade-level text.
ELAKW1-The student begins to understand
the principles of writing.
ELAKW2-The student writes in a variety of
genres, including narrative, informational,
persuasive and response to to literature.

After talking with the teacher, the media

specialists role in this process will be to
introduce literature to the students based
on the theme for each week. The media
specialist will also discuss each topic with
the students and cover key terminology.
The media specialist will also guide the
students on proper internet safety and
specific websites. The students will also
work with 5th grade students and the
media specialist to culminate each weeks
topic with a webquest “treasure hunt”,
websites, and email addresses.

Understandings:

Each culture has similarities and differences.

Each culture, celebration, and tradition is

unique.

Each culture, celebration, and tradition can

be studied, researched, and learned via the
internet and Web 2.0 tools

Essential Questions:
Overarching Questions: Topical Questions:
Using literature and various websites the How do you celebrate at home during the
students will find out the following: holiday?
How do other people that you know
celebrate differently than you?
Why do we celebrate the holiday Are their customs or celebrations similar or
season? different than yours?
Why do other people in our community What other customs or holiday celebrations
celebrate the season of Christmas, do you know of that are celebrated in our
Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and 3 Kings Day? area?
Why do others customs and traditions
differ from ours?

Stage 3: Plan Learning

Experiences
Week 1

1. I will begin with playing Christmas music

and handing out gift bags with different
backgrounds relating to Hanukkah,
Kwanzaa, 3 Kings Day, and Christmas. I
will ask what is on each of the gift bags and
if they can tell me anything about that
specific holiday. (W, H, Gardner/musical,
spatial, kinesthetic, people)

2. Together the students and I will compose

a KWL Chart about the holiday season. I
will explain to them that this will be done
for every celebration and custom that will be
talked about during this unit. (W,
Gardner/linguistic, spatial, interpersonal,
people)

3. Our first celebration is Hanukkah, the

Jewish culture and holiday season. We will
real the stories Arielle and the Hanukkah
Surprise, Hershel and the Hanukkah
Goblins, and Latkes and Applesauce, A
Hanukkah Story. The students will get on
our computers and take an Accelerated
Reader test on the applicable stories. (E,
Gardner/linguistic, spatial, interpersonal)

4. We will create a Venn Diagram on chart

paper and discuss how they celebrate at
home and how it is similar or different than
that of Hanukkah. (R, E-2,
Gardner/linguistic, spatial, people,
interpersonal)

5. The students will visit the webquest site

of
http://www.ecps.k12.nc.us/dfw/ebaker/Hanu
kkah.htm and work with the media
specialist and their 5th grade peer tutor to
complete the “treasure hunt”.

6. The students will make pictures from

different pages of Hershel and the
Hanukkah Goblins and write the words from
the book onto their pictures. We will
photograph the pictures and upload them to
voicethread http://www.voicethread.com
and have the students narrate the book.

7. The students will act out the story

Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins and we
will video tape it and post it to YouTube
http://www.youtube.com or Teacher Tube
http://www.teachertube.com for parents and
family to view. The students will email
children at a Jewish school in Savannah,
Georgia and ask them about their Jewish
holiday customs.

8. Using the website

http://www.torahtots.com/holidays/chanuka/
chanuk.htm
the students, media specialist, and peer tutor will find 2 things that they learned from the site and report
back to the class.

9. The students will email students at Rambam Day School at http://www.rambamdayschool.org. The
students will email children at a Jewish school in Savannah, Georgia and ask them about their Jewish
holiday customs.

Week 2

1. The second week will begin by playing

some African music. (H, Gardner/musical,
kinesthetic)
The African celebration of Kwanzaa begins
on December 26 and ends on January 1.

2. We will read the books The Story of

Kwanzaa, My First Kwanzaa, and Seven
Days of Kwanzaa. The students will take an
Accelerated Reader test on the computer.
(W, H, E, Gardner/linguistic, interpersonal)

3. We will make a class Venn Diagram

showing the similarities and differences of
the Kwanzaa customs and those of what
they traditionally practice at home. (E, R, E-
2, Gardner/visual, people, linguistic)

4. The students will visit the following

webquest
http://www.ecps.k12.nc.us/dfw/ebaker/Kwa
nzaa.htm. They will work with the media
specialist and their 5th grade peer
tutor to complete the “treasure hunt”.

5. The students will color pictures from the

story My First Kwanzaa and write the
narration for each picture. We will then
upload the pictures to voicethread
http://www.voicethread.com and have them
narrate their photos of the story.

6. The students will act out a traditional

Kwanzaa celebration. We will videotape the
celebration and post it to Teacher Tube
http://www.teachertube.com or YouTube
http://www.youtube.com for parents and
family members to view.

7. The students will visit the following

site http://holidays.kaboose.com/kwanzaa-
index.html with their peer tutor and the
media specialist. They find 2 things that
they didn't know about Kwanzaa and
orally report back to the class.
Week 3

1. The children will listen to various

Christmas songs. (H, W, Gardner/musical,
linguistic)

2. The students and I will make a KWL

Chart about Christmas and 3 Kings Day. (E,
E-2, R, T, people, spatial, linguistic)

3. We will finalize our study with that of

the American celebration of Christmas and
Three Kings Day. We will read various
Christmas stories about Santa Claus but also
The Christmas Star by Marcus Pfister. the
students will use the computer to take
Accelerated Reader tests on appropriate
Christmas related books. (W, H, E,
Gardner/interpersonal, linguistic)

4. The students will write a letter to Santa

and to the 3 Kings and we will place them in
the mail. (E, T, E-2, R, Gardner/linguistic,
interpersonal)

5. The students will write about their

favorite thing to do during the holiday
season and one thing they would like to
incorporate from another celebration that
they learned about and why. They will
orally present it to the class. (E, T, E-2, R,
Gardner/interpersonal, people, linguistic)

6. The students will create a Venn Diagram

describing the similarities and differences
between Christmas and one other
celebration we previously studied. (E, T, E-
2, R, Gardner/linguistic, interpersonal,
spatial)

7. The students will finish the unit by

completing their KWL charts. They will
write a few sentences about what they liked
best about our study. (E, T, E-2, R,
Gardner/interpersonal, linguistic)

8. The students will work with the media

specialist and their 5th grade peer tutor to
complete the following webquest about
information regarding Christmas Around the
World.
http://www.ecps.k12.nc.us/dfw/ebaker/Chris
tmasAroundtheWorld.htm
9. The students will email Santa with their
Christmas list at
http://www.emailsanta.com.

10. The students will draw pictures from

The Christmas Star, we will photograph
them and post them to voicethread
http://www.voicethread.com as the children
narrate their pictures.

11. The students will work with their 5th

grade peer tutor and research information
about the North Pole
http://www.northpole.com/. They will write
3-5 sentences about their findings.

Reflection

As with any unit or lesson plan there are

always room for improvement. That being
said, I think that the most difficult part of the
lesson was trying to find time to collaborate
with the classroom teacher and fitting her
into my Media Specialists schedule. She
runs a pre-k-12 grade facility with almost
500 students so she is on the go all day.
The easiest part of the lesson was
finding appropriate reading material for the
students to listen to regarding the subject
matter. The hardest part was probably the
use of the webquests as the classroom
teacher had never used this with her
students. The idea of pairing the children
with their 5th grade reading buddies did help
the lesson to run much more smoothly.
The lesson itself was a success, as the
Christmas season starts early here in Puerto
Rico. Many families begin celebrating
before Halloween even arrives so teaching
the unit when we did wasn’t a problem.